I am enjoying my ride through 1 & 2 Samuel. I remember there being a contradiction contest/tag and here's a "contradiction" that got me thinking.

What should we make of Saul's death? In 1 Samuel 31:4-6, Saul kills himself:

Saul said to his armor-bearer, "Draw your sword and run me through,
or these uncircumcised fellows will come and run me through and abuse
me." But his armor-bearer was terrified and would not do it; so Saul
took his own sword and fell on it. When the armor-bearer saw that
Saul was dead, he too fell on his sword and died with him. So Saul
and his three sons and his armor-bearer and all his men died together
that same day.

"Then he said to me, 'Stand here by me and kill me! I'm in the throes
of death, but I'm still alive.'

"So I stood beside him and killed him, because I knew that after he
had fallen he could not survive. And I took the crown that was on his
head and the band on his arm and have brought them here to my lord."

2 Answers
2

I Sam 31 is written in the voice of the anonymous narrator. This narrator writes with the authority of prophecy and so his version of events is the version that we should accept as correct - Saul fell on his own sword as did his armorer.

The story told by the Amaleki kid in 2 Sam 1:8 is obviously a lie - the kid claims to David that he identified himself to Saul as an Amaleki - a member of an ethnic group subject to herem and forbidden to sojourn, and that Saul asked this Amaleki to kill him. Now, that Saul should die at the hands of an Amaleki is worse than to be abused by the Philistines. The manner of the telling of the story is also not believable. The kid says that he "just happened to be on the Gilboa, and just happened to see Saul leaning on his spear". David, who has just returned from fighting the Amaleki, hears this unlikely story, deduces correctly that he is dealing with a dangerous opportunist, as well as an Amaleki, and dispatches him post haste. At this point in the narrative, David has no other information regarding the actual circumstances of Saul's death.

In II Sam 4, Two battalion commanders, Rechav and Baana, brothers from the Beeri clan, who are entrusted with the royal guard protecting Ish Boshet, treacherously murder Ish Boshet thinking that they can win favor with David for killing the only remaining direct successor to the throne in the house of Saul. In verse 10 David does not corroborate the Amaleki kid's story. (It is likely that David knew the true story by then.) What David does say to Rechav and Baana is that just as he executed the person who who thought he brought good news regarding Saul's death, so he will execute them. Then in verse 11 David tells them why - they have murdered a righteous (innocent) man in his bed. David also tells them obliquely in verse 9 the real message of the story - that he doesn't need any of these obsequious opportunists, because he trusts completely in God Himself for deliverance.

The Amalekite embellished the story thinking he would be rewarded for helping David become king.

In scenario 1, though Saul's armourbearer presumed Saul was dead, Saul was 'still kickin' and revived when the Amalekite came by.

In scenario 2 the Amalekite came upon the scene and discerned what had happened, then claimed credit.

In either situation, David had resisted making himself king for many years as Saul had tried to kill him, and having had many opportunities. If the man had known David at all, he would have distanced himself from the killing itself, and merely brought the crown back to David and wept bitterly before him.